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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Taupou, post: 870721, member: 45&quot;]Bia is a fairly common Navajo surname.&nbsp; There are several weavers with that last name, and a couple jewelry makers, but I am not aware of who &quot;A. Bia&quot; is. </p><p><br /></p><p>This type of pottery is not traditional Navajo pottery.&nbsp; It is usually referred to by the potters themselves as &quot;ceramic&quot; (as opposed to &quot;pottery.&quot;)&nbsp; Instead of being traditionally handmade from local clay, it&#039;s made in a mold, usually purchased from a wholesale supplier, and fired in an electric kiln.&nbsp; The Navajo craftsperson decorates the pot, but doesn&#039;t make it.</p><p><br /></p><p>A few potters in the Cow Springs/Shonto area, still make traditional pinon pine coated pottery.&nbsp; But elsewhere on the reservation, Navajo potters began making this style of etched greenware, non-traditional pottery, primarily for the tourist trade, in the 1970s. </p><p><br /></p><p>Plus many Navajo workers have taken jobs working for the factories that produce tourist pottery, sometimes decorating it, sometimes just finishing and &quot;signing&quot; it so the company could claim it was &quot;Navajo pottery.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Today there&#039;s a wide range of Navajo pottery on the market, from traditional, to factory-made tourist souvenirs.&nbsp; So where this falls on the scale, I really can&#039;t say, other than it obviously isn&#039;t traditional Navajo pottery, which is what I am most familiar with.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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